Tongan teacher won 3 gold medals in Education in USP

The key to success in everything in Life is “Stay Focussed, Prioritize your time and Lift everything to the Lord”.

Tonga’s gold medalist in Education – Petina Ulakai Vi of Kolofo’ou and Niutoua said, it was her only way to success.

This follows the University of the South Pacific – USP announcement that Petina has won 3 gold medals but she said. She only expected 1.

“The medal that I got is one for Majoring in Education, the other is in Linguistic and Literature and English Lit, and the third one is for the overall Bachelor of Education Program, It wasn’t easy in the program , its not a easy thing to achieve but you know if you stay focused, know why you are there and what you are there to do and you Pray , I know its definitely helpful to get you over all the challenges the university life, you know the partying, the peer pressure and everything that goes on. The university is like a little world away from home you just have to stay focused and work towards your Goals and at the end it should come easy”, says Petina.

Being away from her family and loved ones was really hard but all the loneliness, tough and rough roads faced in life has been well paid off.

“I did see that being homesick was one of the biggest challenges because the parents were not there to make the decisions for them , They have to do their own cooking their won shopping and they have to budget their own money those are things that normally that parents do. But I would advise that if you always, always remember where you came from , what you are there to do, that alone should motivate you to get over being homesick and to make wise decisions to do your studies over partying and I am extremely thankful”, says Petina.

Petina is currently an English teacher at Tonga College – ‘Atele. She was an Australian scholarship scholar since 2015.

She will be graduating at the USP Graduation Ceremony next week in Suva, Fiji.